On Sep 18, 2014, at 2:02 pm, Stan Halpin <[email protected]> wrote:
> Make sure the frame + seat position gives you enough height that your leg is > pretty much fully extended at the bottom of your pedal stroke. Note the general rule of thumb is to put your heel on the pedal when doing that test but I expect that'll be mentioned in the other material that people have linked, along with all the other stuff I was going to write. > Otherwise you are back to push-push-push rather than push-pull-push-pull. And > your knees will hurt and you will be using way too much effort on even short > rides and you'll get discouraged and stop riding. When others say to make > sure the bike frame fits you, this is what they mean. Yes, if the seat is too low you'll feel it in the quads / knees. Too high... probably the lower back as your hips would rock as you pedal (some slight rocking can occur anyway as it also depends on core strength, especially if you're pushing a hard gear or going uphill). The back (and glutes) will also be affected by how far you're stretched to reach the handlebar. It's better to be too upright than too forward, as leaning forward requires more flexibility. Note that you are likely to be sore after your first few rides anyway :) Getting a bike fit that's perfect for you is a bit of an art as it depends on comfort, strength, flexibility, injury history and riding intent, all on top of the "idealised" position. The position of the seat relative to the pedals is the most important to get right but note that anything you read is just a starting point which you can tweak as needed. I've used a professional bike fitter to get mine right because I ride quite a lot and need to avoid injury. Oh yes, and the one other piece of advice I'd add is to make sure you're able to fix a puncture. I've found self-adhesive patches are much less fiddly than the plain ones. Cheers, Dave -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
